Madonna – Just like a Branded Virgin

For a quarter century, Madonna Louise Ciccone has continued to engage and astonish us, the undisputed master of pushing the envelope and redefining her art. She continues to mesmerize her audiences and keep herself relevant in a world full of young media hunger aspiring music stars. This spring Madonna was again on the cover of Vanity Fair; her 10th appearance since 1986. For a woman turning 50 this year she looks as sexy as ever with a well toned body. Her career has been as much about selling sex and building a global brand as it has been about her artistic talent. Her enduring secret is the ability to continually reinvent herself and create the right amount of media hype to keep her in the limelight and on the music charts. This is a brand that is still evolving and hasn’t reach maturity yet, it is best to keep this one vertical to see what may come next.

Score – 89

Building your brand on sex

It’s a known fact that sex sells. But does it build lasting brands? If you ask Calvin Klein, he would say yes. Over a 2.5* billion dollar business built on provocative and sexual images isn’t bad.

For years, cars, beer, perfume and recently, deodorants have been sold to males through images of scantily-clad, perfectly sculptured woman. Tapping into the basic instincts of man - sex is a universal interest. Watch a beautiful woman walk down a street and you will notice others following her every step. Sexy images drive eye balls (especially men’s who think about sex every 7 seconds!)**.

Clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch markets its sexual brand image to college-age adults but ends-up attracting many younger teens (including my 12 and 16-year-old kids). Not only do they show beautiful youth in their advertising, but they hire the best-looking, young people to model their clothes in the stores. They made sure the brand lives not only in the advertising but in the stores. I wish beer stores respected the brand the same way.

Sex comes with many risks (including rashes and bumps in areas that we don’t want to talk about). Klein doesn’t apologize for pushing the envelope in what is deemed decent and what isn’t. "Sometimes people look at the advertising and resent it or feel threatened by what they see — but in the end, if the sales are good, the images must be OK," Klein said. The fact is CK’s men’s underwear owns the underwear market ever since Mark Wahlberg wore nothing but.

Both Calvin Klein and Abercrombie & Fitch continue to walk the fine line between sexy and soft core porn. Consumer groups have launched boycott campaigns against both companies over the years and have successfully had campaigns removed from public viewing. Just recently, the Virginia Beach police seized photos from an Abercrombie store that were deemed indecent. See story.

The fact is beautiful airbrushed, naked people can help sell products and build a sexually compelling brand. Dove had recently taken a different approach by showcasing their products on naked, everyday, wholesome women, so maybe we’re not as superficial after all. They did get bad press when it was leaked that they digitally enhanced some of the women’s images to make them better looking. OK maybe we are superficial.



Sexy is an easy way to accomplish edginess and draw attention, but does it fulfill your brand promise and is it sustainable? Just make sure you use this power wisely and don’t flaunt it unnecessarily or it could do more damage than good to your brand. Remember; over-promising can only lead to disappointment and negative feelings which aren’t brand builder.

Your audience will always have the final say and they’ll tell you at the till. So provoke, shock and engage, because as long as your audience has given you permission, they’ll eat it up like a Coolwhip® bikini.


*1996 was the only sales figure I could find as the company was private until sold to Phillips Van Heusen Corp. in 2002.
**Kinsey Institute’s disputes this claim; they state that 54% of men think about sex every day or several times a day and 43% a few times per month or a few times per week.

McDonald’s a leader in Americana – the fast food McKing

Like Henry Ford, Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s restaurants, engineered the operational excellence of producing mass quantities of fast food burgers to the world. While I grew up with the classic Big Mac it was still a novelty as there were few outlets in Canada. But all of my children grew-up with a healthy (ok, unhealthy) appetite for Chicken McNuggets. Well the competition have easily imitated (and in some cases better) their operational excellences with faster, more choices and ever changing menus, none has surpassed McDonald’s branding power and advertising prowess ($1.6 billion in 2006). McDonald’s is the master of the McDeals: happy meals, values meals, super sizing, and anything Mc. Ronald McDonald awareness is just as high as Santa Claus among children in North America. Even after the movie “Super Size Me” they remain the world’s largest fast food burger chain with over 31,000 restaurants and 47 million customers daily. In 2007, they posted a record $23 billion in revenues. The average US Micky D’s saw 15% increase in store sales, despite the healthy eating trend (maybe it is only a trend). Like sweet fruity wine, McDonald’s has perfected the right amount of sugar and salt to keep its customer craving their next Mac attack (or heart attack – which ever comes first).

Score - 92

Technorati Profile

Air Canada – The airline that everyone one loves to hate

Air Canada, the airline that grew from the terrior of the Canadian Federal Government. I believe Air Canada’s brand promise is “we aren’t happy until you’re not happy." The sad part is they successfully fulfill their promise on a regular bases. You definitely get the impression that they are driven by the bottom-line and customer satisfaction doesn’t enter into the decision making process unless they can save money. Everyone has a horror story and the airline is a continual butt of many jokes. That being said, I am sure there are many good stories that never get heard. The good thing is their planes stay in the air when they should and you do get to your destination safely. I would classify this brand as having some sharp undertones that aren’t pleasant to the palate but is tolerable understanding that the alternative choices are few.

Score - 68

My Personal Branding Update – Month One

One month and counting – that’s how long I have been consciously building my personal brand online.

I have googled the world to glean from the experts and to learn the ins and outs of constructing an online presence that projects my brand promise. Like other bloggers I am here to share my views and experiences.

If you are just starting or want to learn more about personal branding view this slideshow by Trisha Okubo. She really hits the nail on the head.

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Back to me
I don’t really know what success looks like but to date I am tracking a handful of unique visitors to my site. I guess this would include you since you are reading this blog. Thanks for your support.

My google search on my name pulled ten pages, of which, seven are about me. A lot of these entries existed before from my job as communications manager for Bayer CropScience Inc., Canada.

Here is what I have been doing for the past 20 days:
- Launched this blog with little fanfare
- Started developing my LinkedIn contact list from 10 to 36 and growing
- Published two articles on EzineArticles.com http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Derrick_Rozdeba (84 page views and 2 url clicks to my blog)
- Started adding links to my site
- Did the ping thing with search engines to help drive traffic to my site

What I have learnt so far?
There is lots of content out there -- some great, some good and a lot of junk. I am still not getting picked up by google in the google alerts (under “branding”) and I don’t know why. I am also finding that I have more stories in my head than time to write them. My down time is now spent writing or thinking of new branding topics for this blog. Stay tune for more. I would appreciate any comments or suggests. Cheers!

IKEA - the brand that's in the box

When you hear “furniture in a box” who do you immediately think of? IKEA has perfected the flat-pack furniture where customers hull their boxes home then spend countless hours assembling the furniture from a universal pictogram. So do they always add additional screws and bolts or did I miss something? Since cost is the driving force behind the fashionable Swedish furniture maker I don’t think they give anything away. Today they have over 278 stores in 36 countries and still promote their brand on their Swedishness including severing Swedish meatballs in their cafeteria. This brand is simple and clean on the palette. It is also a participator brand, meaning you can’t be passive. This strengthens the connection of inexpensive. The unique flavor of this brand is its Swedishness, a modern European flare but not pretentious or threatening. More like a new neighbor who is still out of sorts from their original home. The outstanding question is “Are they connecting to the young people today?" I know where my first new furniture came from but most of the young people are still living at the parents home!

Score - 93